West Must Help Democracy in Algeria

Published: February 3, 1992

To the Editor:

Algeria was on the home stretch of a historic shift to the first multiparty democracy in the Arab world. Now, it is without a president or parliament, ruled by a handful of unelected men (front page, Jan. 13). No one should be fooled: President Chadli Benjedid was forced out, the electorate betrayed and democracy desecrated. The Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights also condemned the High Security Council, saying the "brutal and unjustified interruption of the democratic process" was tantamount to a military coup.

Yet the dramatic cancellation of elections has drawn little criticism from the capitals of the West, where democracy's virtues are so often extolled. The Department of State has said through its spokesman, "We view with concern the interruption of the electoral process."

This hardly reflects a strong position against a military coup designed to interrupt the democratic process in Algeria. These parliamentary elections were free and fair. They reflect the will of the Algerian people and must be respected.

The real issue is not who won the elections. The crucial thing is that a democratic process was under way and has now been aborted. When populations are fed up with single-party authoritarian regimes over many decades, it's not surprising that Islam should serve as a powerful vehicle of protest. Let Islam come out of the underground and learn to survive in electoral politics as it does in Turkey, Jordan and Pakistan. Give the democratic process a little time to take hold in the Arab world.

The West, which advocates freedom and democracy throughout the world, cannot remain silent in face of this clear usurpation of power by the military. Western countries, in particular the United States, must take a firm position against this coup and demand that power be restored to the people and their legitimately elected representatives. LOTFI BELHADI President North African Students for Freedoms Washington, Jan. 14, 1992